Table 1 Quality assessment questions
1 | Is the hypothesis/aim/objective of the study clearly described? |
|---|---|
2 | Are the characteristics of the patients included in the study clearly described? |
3 | Are the main findings of the study clearly described? |
4 | Does the study provide estimates of random variability in the data for the main outcomes (e.g., interquartile range for non-normally distributed data; standard error, standard deviation, or confidence intervals for normally distributed data)? |
5 | Have the actual probability values been reported (e.g., .035 rather than < .05) for the main outcomes except where the probability value is less than .001? |
6 | Were those subjects who were prepared to participate representative of the entire population from which they were recruited? |
7 | Were the staff, places, and facilities where patients were treated representative of the treatment the majority of patients receive? Was PA in line with guidelines or a program ad-hoc? Internal validity |
8 | Were the main outcome measures used accurate (Is the device valuated and reliable)? |
9 | Was this study a clinical trial? |
10 | Was it randomized? |
11 | Was it blind? |
12 | Did the adherence have a direct output (e.g., it did not need to be derived)? |
13 | Was the output of the monitor in line with guidelines? |
14 | Was the duration of study in line with guidelines? |
15 | Was there a follow-up? |